The Official Blog of the Independent Community of Educators, a caucus of the United Federation of Teachers

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

BILLION DOLLAR DAYS OFF

Close analysis of the agreement between the city and the UFT creating a new pension tier shows that the city has once again taken the UFT to the cleaners. While this is nothing new, it is still depressing when it happens over and over again.

The sad details show that we are giving the city back $2 billion over twenty years. My source for this is the Mayor's office. On top of this, add the health care savings that the Municipal Labor Committee just gave back that amounted to $550 million over the next few years. What do we win in exchange for billions in savings for the city? The two weekdays before Labor Day will be added to summer vacation.

These professional development days were useless and it's fine to get them added back to our summer break. The agreement also says we may return to work in September the same day that the kids come back which is ridiculous. By working it in this way, the city can correctly say we haven't shortened the school year. However, this potentially absurd situation is not the worst part of this deal.

The two added vacation days won't cost the city a dime as they are not giving us any additional money. However, in yet another indignity, we will be forced to pay for our two days off at a rate of 1.08% in additional funding according to the agreement. .5% will come from lowering the interest rate on the fixed TDA from 8.25% to 7% and raising the amount of years future teachers must work before they can retire with health benefits from ten to fifteen. The other .58%, according to the agreement, will "be addressed in the upcoming round of collective bargaining for the successor agreement to the current agreement which expires October 31, 2009." Translation, our raise will be lowered. What about the new pension tier savings? Won't that money be applied to pay for the added vacation days? The answer is no.

The new Tier V, where yet to be hired teachers will have to pay 4.85% in pension contributions for 27 years, is a free gift to the city from the UFT that we get nothing back for accepting.

When you are enjoying those extra days off on September 3 and 4, just call them the billion dollar days. That's roughly the amount that each day will end up costing us in the long run. For that kind of gift, couldn't we get back just a little bit more of our professional dignity?

15 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The amazing thing here is that the UFT hails this as a victory when, in fact, any teacher worth their salt is coming in on those 2 days to set up their classrooms and become involved in their workplace (community). In essence, the DOE gave up the two days that most people come in for anyways when teachers were getting paid. Clearly, the most beneficial solution to all would have been to eliminate Election Day and June 28 (THAT'S RIGHT, THE DAY AFTER THE LAST DAY FOR STUDENTS THAT TEACHERS ARE NOW REQUIRED TO SHOW UP FOR). PATHETIC! Let's hope that people come to their senses here and allow at least one day for set-up, meetings, etc. before school starts.

We banded together and decided that we will not come back early. Our rooms are papered and as neat as we can make them for now. We kept items we need for the first day of school handy. We will have the kids put the furniture in place during homeroom.

If we come back early, the DOE will turn around and say "See? We gave them the days and they came in anyway".

???What do we do when we return to school that Tuesday and the Principal has crammed 2 days of PD into 1 and has scheduled at best less than an hour to work on classroom set up, if any time at all??? That is the situation I already know I'm heading back to in Sept. My Principal held a meeting yesterday to explain the date changes and how she now only has 1 day to cram in PD. She did not sound like she understood that Tuesday was to be used "first and foremost for preparation of the classroom..." Just speculation on my part but I'll guess most Principals across the city will miss this as well.

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Each year our union is required, by law, to file several financial reports. The form, called an LM-2, is available here. This report reflect transactions for the year ending July 31, 2014. It was prepared on December 23, 2014.

Additionally the Department of Labor provides other reports about the UFT. Go to their site and input file number 063-924 at the top and select the type of report you want to review. These files are in spreadsheet format.